Norwich mum launches new baby business

Sam WilliamsJuggling a job with looking after children can pose a major challenge to mums.But mother-of-two Tanya Halifax is hoping to help others earn a living after launching a nursery furniture company.Sam Williams

Juggling a job with looking after children can pose a major challenge to mums.

But mother-of-two Tanya Halifax is hoping to help others earn a living after launching a nursery furniture company.

Ms Halifax, 28, a former club dancer and care worker from Old Catton, recently founded Made With Love, selling handmade furniture, patchwork quilts, bed linen sets and wall hangings - all of which can be personalised with children's names or belongings.

Her website, www.madewithloveuk.co.uk, has just been finished and has already received 1,500 hits, and Ms Halifax has taken on eight self-employed machinists, many of them mothers, to make the products when orders start to come in.

Ms Halifax said: 'I am very sentimental and love beautiful things that have a story to them, and which are personal and unique, so I started designing my own things for my children, and realised there was a market for that.

'Customers can design their own quilts, and can have their children's names engraved in furniture, or items stitched into wall hangings.

'We can make everything personal to any child.'

She added: 'A lot of my friends who are mothers struggle because their partners work and they don't have their family nearby to look after the children while they go to work.

'But with us anyone with a creative side might be able to earn some money.

'As we expand I want to get work for more people, and I am currently advertising for carpenters.

'This is something I have done all on my own, which I'm very proud of.'